If You Had To Avoid A Common Literary Technique, Which Would It Be?

By Jonathan Joseph Bondhus, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

And what I mean by "common literary technique" can best be explained by examples: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, which has no dialogue; Gadsby, which has no letter "e"s; the multitude of books that don't have an actual main character/protagonist (per se); the many novels that have no chapter breaks or even scene divisions; the stories that never give the main character a name; books written in only dialogue with no explicit author voice.

Personally, I think it would be quite interesting to try writing a story without any references at all to the setting. I love setting--my favorite genre is (as you probably already know already) Science Fiction, with Fantasy very close behind--but working only with characters could be a worthwhile experiment. Haven't tried it yet, but who knows. I might.

What do you think? Would you ever try breaking the rules this way? Have you already tried, and if so, how did it work out?


Also: I know I've been relatively inactive in the blogosphere recently. A busier schedule--including, just this week, a stint of visits to the doctor, plus a cold (the latter of which is possibly related to visiting the hospital three days in a row despite getting a flu vaccine; or maybe my cold is because of the flu vaccine)--has confused my blogging time, but I'll try to stick to a better regimen so I can get back to reading your blogs on a regular basis.

And in case you're wondering, yes, test results were negative and I'm fine. Except for consuming too many cough drops.


-----The Golden Eagle

Do You Have To Like The Writing To Enjoy A Book?

There are characters, there's the setting, and there's plot--but what about writing?

Is it necessary, as a reader, to like the writing of a book? There are all different styles, each writer has their own, and it's a rather important aspect to a novel.

(SOURCE)

I find there are three major types of writing when I'm reading a book:

There are unique, surprising styles. Books written in the second POV come to mind, ones that break the fourth wall, or ones that have a distinctive voice to them, both outside of and including the dialogue. This can be hit-or-miss: one person might adore books with a sharp, snarky tone and another person might view them with much dislike.

Then there's writing that doesn't have much that sticks out about it. Description, dialogue, characters, they're all there, but the writing itself is unobtrusive. That can be a negative or a positive, depending on the story itself; whether or not the plot and characters are enough to keep the attention, or whether the writing is just bland.

And then there's some writing that is . . . er, "unedited". In need of spell-check, an editor, perhaps a good overhaul. We've all seen it somewhere, I suspect. This can be more easily overlooked if there's something interesting about the story, but coming across errors repeatedly can jar the reading experience.

These are, of course, generalizations. Every person's style is different, and each has their own pluses and minuses.

What do you think? What kind of writing do you like--ones that focus on the story itself, or ones that use clever tricks that draw attention to themselves? Are there any books whose writing style you love?


-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (24) and What's Your Writing Process? Blogfest

I thought it would be easier for the rest of you if I just put everything into one post, so here goes Teaser Tuesday and the What's Your Writing Process? Blogfest.

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Teaser Tuesday is a fun, book-based weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser is from The Curse of the Wendigo, the sequel to the Michael L. Printz Award-winning The Monstrumologist.

   The gray land was deceptively still. It kept its secrets.

   Something was following us.

-p. 115

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The What's Your Process? Blogfest is hosted by Shallee McArthur at Life, the Universe, and Writing. Here's some information:

On Tuesday, January 18th, blog about ANY part of your writing process-- how you create characters, how you plot your novel, how you organize your rewrites, your whole writing process from start to finish, anything. Even if you're a complete pantser, tell us your pantsing process. Do you write chronologically? Jump around? Edit as you go, or just dump it all on the page? Let us know!

I have decided to talk about how I write a first draft.

Doing anything out of order makes me frustrated. If I don't write the first draft chronologically, then I get confused and jumbled up and ideas spring all over the place and the story feels to me like it's going to fall apart unless I do something about the whole mess. Chapters that don't connect smoothly drive me up the wall.

One of the main reasons I don't like writing out of order is because I hate going back and filling things in, when I've already written a scene that's based on that information. Sure, it's frustrating sometimes when I want to slam myself down in one of the major plot points and type furiously from there, but I always find that getting out the first draft in order pays off in the long run.

What about you? Do you write in order, out of order, or both?

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If you have at teaser to share, feel free to share it in the comments! If you're part of the blogfest, go ahead and mention it so that I know to get around to your entry. :)

(And don't forget: you can ask me questions of all kinds HERE, or on any post since then, which I will answer on Friday.)


-----The Golden Eagle

Animal Writes Blogfest: Hunting in the Blue Depths

Yes, I am participating in another blogfest! This one sounded pretty cool, so I signed up and here is my entry for the Animal Writes Blogfest. The challenge for this one is to write a piece from a viewpoint of any animal, (less than 1000 words!) so long as their minds aren't like humans'--mermaids, apparently, are out.

I'm not going to tell which animal this happens to be until the end, but see if you can guess!

   I felt the cold current wash over me while I sensed my prey nearby. It was only a small change in temperature, but I could feel the colder waters behind me, beckoning me back into their embrace.

   My prey loomed closer.

   I changed my skin, feeling less than seeing my skin ripple and morph into something entirely different from what it had been just a few seconds ago. A passing sea creature didn’t even spare me a glance as it went on its way—I felt almost invincible.

   But I couldn’t dwell on my success for long.

   The subject of my hunt paused as if to look around, its eyes swiveling and moving about. It began to inch sideways toward a shallow, cave-like formation in the nearby coral.

   What it didn’t know was that I had no intentions of letting it disappear out my sight.

   I inched closer, raising a long row of ridges along my back, moving my tentacles like the seaweed nearby. My prey was oblivious, and it moved slowly, unaware it was being expertly stalked.

   Striking out before it could dive away, my feelers latched on with their surprising strength. The little crab thrashed and tried to snap at me, but before it could inflict any harm, I had already swallowed it whole.

   Satisfied now with this particular outcrop, I pulled away from the coral and started to slide over the seabed, the cool sand brushing my underside. My tentacles waved almost lazily in the currents, flowing back and forth. I changed my appearance yet again, sensing the color change.

   I saw one of my cousins nearby, moving relatively quickly, chasing after its own meal. I didn’t spare it a glance, instead deciding that perusing an attractively varied mound of coral over yonder held more interest.

   I pumped my way over, send little puffs of water backwards as I moved. I didn’t go very fast—my little body couldn’t do much in the way of speed, unless it was to catch a crab or fish.

   The other animals around me paid me no attention. The sharks, too busy with their own activities—fighting over food, hunting, looking for mates—didn’t bother with me, all by my lonesome, creeping across the floor below them.

   When I reached it, the coral seemed beautiful, even to my eyes. My W-shaped pupils shifted as the light filtered from above hit me, and I hooked myself onto a particularly wavy piece of growth. I tried to blend in with it, mold myself into the green, but it didn’t work.

   So I tried something else—a dark red, mottled surface greeted me as I swam around the coral and I settled into that, raising bumps along my skin and looking perfectly like my surroundings.

   It was peaceful here, I decided, not moving an inch. I stayed as silent and as still as the coral I was resting on. The waters were nice. One of the nearby sharks lazily arced above, making a shadow on the sea floor. It was closer than it had been before, but I didn’t worry unduly—I was much too far away to be seen clearly enough, and much too small to fill up that behemoth.

   Yes, right here, this place was peaceful, serene . . .

   A fish innocently swam past.

   I shot my long feelers out again, hitting the fish’s side and drawing it in quickly. I had broken my cover, but the delicacy I was now digesting more than paid off.

   I swam away again, and if smiling had been in my repertoire, believe me, I would have been.

If you guessed octopus, you'd be wrong. If you guessed cuttlefish, then you'd be right!

I had considered doing an eagle or something like that, but that would have been much too obvious. So, I settled on what's practically the opposite of my name--a squid.

(Image Source)

If you're doing this blogfest, comment and tell me so I can check out your entry!

-----The Golden Eagle